Merry Christmas!

It's actually Christmas Eve here for another hour but close enough. I've been busy with company for the last few days. My parents have been here and my little brother arrived a couple of days ago as well. It's been a really nice time. The girls love getting up and spending the morning in bed with Grandma and Grandpa and then bugging Grandpa until he makes them porridge. I know it's weird for kids to like porridge and actually ask for it, but Grandpa allows them a whole lot more sugar on top than mommy does, so of course they love it. If I'm nearby Grandpa will even try to distract me so they can scoop one more spoonful on while I am not looking!

We had our Christmas meal this evening. We always have a big lunch of snacky things on Christmas day starting at about 11am and lasting until supper so Chris thought that this year, to avoid the bloated and sick tummies, we'd eat the turkey on Christmas Eve. It worked out very nicely. We started the turkey cooking early this morning, okay, Grandma started it cooking early this morning while I slept in, and then we just visited until it was time to cook the rest of the food. We've watched a few Christmas movies and played quite a few dice games to pass the time. As I said before it's been a very nice time!

Tomorrow will be filled with more food and of course PRESENTS! The kids are so excited and could not wait any longer for Christmas to finally arrive.

Merry Christmas to all my friends and family! Have a wonderful day and cross your fingers that this year is the year I will finally get the puzzle roller I have wanted for so long!

Gift Wrapping Tips for Men - Author Unknown

Christmas is the time of year when we think back to when the Wise Men went to see the baby Jesus and, according to the Book of Matthew,"presented unto Him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh."
These are simple words, but if we analyze them carefully, we discover an important, yet often overlooked, theological fact: there is no mention of wrapping paper.
If there had been wrapping paper, Matthew would have said so: "And lo, the gifts were inside 600 square cubits of paper. And the paper was festooned with pictures of Frosty the Snowman. And Joseph was going to throweth it away, but Mary saideth unto him, she saideth,'Holdeth it! That is nice paper! Saveth it for next year!' And Joseph did rolleth his eyeballs. And the baby Jesus was more interested in the paper than the frankincense."
But these words do not appear in the Bible, which means that the very first Christmas gifts were NOT wrapped. This is because the people giving those gifts had two important characteristics:
1. They were wise.
2. They were men.
Men are not big gift wrappers. Men do not understand the point of putting paper on a gift just so somebody else can tear it off. This is not just my opinion, this is a scientific fact based on a statistical survey of two guys I know. One is Rob, who said the only time he ever wraps a gift is "if it's such a poor gift that I don't want to be there when the person opens it." The other is Gene, who told me he does wrap gifts, but as a matter of principle never takes more than 15 seconds per gift. "No one ever had to wonder which presents daddy wrapped at Christmas," Gene said. "They were the ones that looked like enormous spitballs."
I also wrap gifts, but because of some defect in my motor skills, I can never completely wrap them. I can take a gift the size of a deck of cards and put it the exact center of a piece of wrapping paper the size of a regulation volleyball court, but when I am done folding and taping, you can still see a sector of the gift peeking out. (Sometimes I camouflage this sector with a marking pen.) If I had been an ancient Egyptian in the field of mummies, the lower half of the Pharaoh's body would be covered only by Scotch tape.
On the other hand, if you give my wife a 12-inch square of wrapping paper, she can wrap a C-130 cargo plane. My wife, like many women, actually likes wrapping things. If she gives you a gift that requires batteries, she wraps the batteries separately, which to me is very close to being a symptom of mental illness. If it were possible, my wife would wrap each individual volt.
My point is that gift-wrapping is one of those skills like having babies that come more naturally to women than to men.That is why today I am presenting:
Gift Wrapping Tips for Men:
* Whenever possible, buy gifts that are already wrapped. If, when the recipient opens the gift, neither one of you recognizes it, you can claim that it's myrrh.
* The editors of Woman's Day magazine recently ran an item on how to make your own wrapping paper by printing a design on it with an apple sliced in half horizontally and dipped in a mixture of food coloring and liquid starch. They must be smoking crack.
If you're giving a hard-to-wrap gift, skip the wrapping paper! Just put it inside a bag and stick one of those little adhesive bows on it. This creates a festive visual effect that is sure to delight the lucky recipient on Christmas morning:
YOUR WIFE: Why is there a Hefty trash bag under the tree?
YOU: It's a gift! See? It has a bow!
YOUR WIFE (peering into the trash bag): It's a leaf blower.
YOU: Gas-powered! Five horsepower!
YOUR WIFE: I want a divorce.
YOU: I also got you some myrrh.
In conclusion, remember that the important thing is not what you give, or how you wrap it. The important thing, during this very special time of year, is that you save the receipt.
Author Unknown (but definitely male)

Bad, bad mommy

I never remember my camera.

Last night was Anna's preschool Christmas Program. Did I have my camera? Of course not. I am sure I am in all the videos though since I was sitting near the edge of the stage to keep one of the little boys in line. Then when Santa arrived I was helping him with the kids' names and handing out their presents, so I am in all the Santa photos too. Was there a picture taken of Anna with Santa? Nope. But mommy's in all the pictures! Maybe I can get each of the other parents to send me a copy of a picture of Santa, their kid and me for Anna's photo album? Oh yeah, she doesn't have an album, in fact I don't think we've printed a picture of Anna since her baptism when she was 2 mos old. How horrible.

Four

That's how many days left until I am done this crazy babysitting gig! It hasn't been all bad, but I miss the freedom I used to have. Last year I babysat too but only every other day and some evenings. This year it's been ever weekday, and a lot more kids. When there was no school I would have seven children here including my own. Most days I would have 3-5 which is still a lot. With only weekends I never had time to run errands. I hate going into the city on a Saturday since the stores are always crazy, especially at Christmas time! Dr's appts, dentists etc all had to be booked in advance so I could give notice to the parents so they could arrange alternate care, and I would try to work around Chris's schedule as well. It got pretty hectic at times. I am so, so, so, so glad it's almost done!

After Christmas holidays I'll still be babysitting one extra every other weekday, and I may have another extra once in a while, but this every day all day thing is over! I'm looking forward to being able to sleep til 8am some days, and spending the day with just my kiddos. Yay!

Tinsel is to Christmas as Sand is to the Beach

Christmas time is kinda like going to the beach. No matter how careful you are, you come home with sand in your pants and socks. Even if you just drive by a beach you end up sandy.

Today I was sweeping and to my surprise I swept tinsel out from just under the stove. Not really surprising except for the fact that we did not use tinsel to decorate at all this year. Where on earth did it come from? It must have migrated over here from the neighbor's house or something. Too bad baking wouldn't just appear in the same way!

Long hair woes

Those of you with short hair, and mostly boy children probably don't understand the problems long hair can cause (and by mostly boy I don't mean each specific child is mostly a boy, I mean most of your children are boy children, just thought I should clarify). A few woes us long haired, mostly girl children people have to deal with are as follows:

• Lice. I'm not sure if long hair is more prone to 'catch' it, but's it's definitely a much bigger pain in the ass to get rid of with long hair. Thankfully we have not had to deal with this for quite a few years...knock on wood.
• "There's a hair in my food mom". At our house 'Guess whose hair this is? is a favorite mealtime game.
• Clogged tub drains. Every couple of months we have to pour industrial strength drain cleaner down our tub drain. Regular Draino just won't cut it. We need the stuff that when you pour it down it not only smells like burning hair, but smoke comes up out of the drain. It cannot be good for your pipes, but the other option is standing in half a foot of water while showering and then waiting 15 minutes for the water to drain when you are done. Of course with a slow draining tub there is a whole whack (that word was for you Brenda ;)) of soap scum left on the sides of the tub every single day. Ewwww.
• Hairy socks. Chris has these yucky feeling polyester socks he was given for work years ago and they attract hair. Everytime I wash and dry them I have to pick the long strands of hair off them so he can wear them again. It's weird and kinda gross really.
• And today I have discovered that long hair is also the cause of my computer mouse being so touchy lately. It's an optical mouse so I figured you don't have to clean it. Although it does not get the crunchy dirt the ball mouse used to get, I've found out it can get a very long hair lodged up inside by the little red light which when you are trying to navigate around a webpage, makes your mouse pointer jump all over the darn place, causing you to abandon the mouse and start using the touch pad, which then annoys you to no end because a regular mouse is so much more versatile. However when this long hair is removed, the mouse works perfectly again, and I can now get back to my regular scheduled web surfing with no mouse interference whatsoever.

A new dining experience

Our family was invited to the nearby Hutterite Colony this evening for dinner and to watch the school's Christmas program. We've been out to the colony a few times before, mostly to buy vegetable and corn, but a couple times for the year end school picnic where they host a very large bbq outside. Tonight was more 'traditional'.

I've seen the kitchen and dining hall before and I know that the men sit on one side and the women on the other. They also seat the older, more important, people at the head tables. In church they sit segregated as well and sit in order of age, older at the front, younger at the back. I suspect it's the same at meals. I wasn't sure how they do things when they have guests as I have never eaten in the dining hall before. I also had the girls with me, and usually the children eat in a seperate room or before the adults. We were waiting outside the dining hall with the other guests, sort of in the kitchen area where there were about 6 women taking care of the food preperation. They have an amazing kitchen, which includes a pressure cooker, or maybe it's a deep fryer, large enough for an adult to sit it! The women cook for the 100 or so colony members for 3 meals a day and that kitchen is still spotless! Anyways, after we had been there a few minutes the men started to arrive. I still was unsure how we would be seated until Frank, one of the older men, who is in charge of the barns, said to Chris and pointed to the dining hall "Okay let's go". He only was referring to Chris, so my question was then answered, lol. Luckily I knew some of the other women visitors, so I didn't feel quite so abandoned.

Because of Chris's job, he is quite respected by the colony and he knows many of the men. He was asked to sit at the head table with the old guys. I on the other hand ended up at the very last women's table. I didn't have to sit at the end, but I was not invited to the front like he was. I had the choice of the last three tables, so I sat at the one with the most people I knew, lol. The meal was very nice, nothing fancy, but good. We ate duck, which I have never eaten before, and it was very good. Even the girls liked it. Beth and Katie thought it tasted like chicken and Anna thought it was a chicken, lol.

After dinner the women did the dishes. I was able to get out of that since there were lots of visitors helping out and I had the kids with me. Lydia, Frank's oldest daughter, said we could go to their house while we waited for the Christmas program to start. She had to stay and do dishes (they have 3 rotations of which women do the kitchen work) so we were just going to wait for her, when Chris and Frank came along and she told Frank we were going to their house and Frank decided Chris and he would go there too. So we went ahead with Frank while Lydia worked. Lydia's mother and brother were there when we arrived (3 houses down from the kitchen, lol) and the mom made us some coffee while Chris and Frank and the brother chatted and Frank shared some wedding photos with Chris. I was busy encouraging the girls to try to play with the grandchildren Kerri and Darren. Kerri was probably a year older than Beth and could speak english but Darren only spoke german. He was not quite three. They didn't play much. Lydia was home soon after and we visited a bit before the program started.

The school at the colony has 18 children who attend from about ages 5-15. They generally only go to school until it is no longer required by law. Because they all speak german from infancy many of the children had very thick accents and with my kids being squiggly and a few little Hutterite children bouncing around nearby I had a hard time concentrating on the program. The program was completely in english though, and the kids seemed to have a very fun time showing off their english skills. After the program the colony sang about 3 german songs while we stayed seated and a few of the men and women set out the lunch. Man is the food good there, or in Katie's words "Mom, the food here is AWESOME!" They make the best salami I can remember eating, and they had lots out as well as lots of homemade sweets etc. We sat with Lydia and Darrin (her nephew), her mom was behind us somewhere and her father did not come, he went to work in the barns instead. After we ate Lydia showed me around the school and the church (all in the same buulding) and then she had work to do and I went to visit with Chris and some of the other colony members. It was getting late though so we got the girls ready and made our way out and to the van.

All in all it was a really nice evening. I would love to spend a day at the colony seeing how things run on a daily basis, how they run their households etc. I have so many questions about things, none that I felt comfortable asking when I barely know the people. For instance Lydia is the oldest sibling (she's probably my age or a little older) but her younger sisters are married and she is not. She has a married brother and her youngest brother left the colony. He's in Fort Mac working on the rigs. He may decide to come back to the colony one day, maybe not. Most young people who leave the colony do end up coming back. I'm not sure why she isn't married or if she even has to get married. Things I'd like to know but didn't ask. Anyways, if you want to know more about Hutterites read this Wikipedia link. It mentions they trace their roots to similar to the Amish, but do not confuse them with the Amish. The Hutterites are completely modernized in so many ways. They have the best farm machinery etc. We saw their milking barn a few years ago and it was amazing, completely computerized. And amazing spotless, even sparkling, of course thanks to the women, lol.

Time for a change

I'm going to get my haircut on Saturday. It's been a year since I had it done last which is just crazy. I really need to get it done more often. I'm going to go for a style like this:

That's the same picture I took in to the stylist last year, but she was a little worried with my hair being as thin as it's become that it wouldn't 'flip' the same as in the picture so she tried something a little longer with less flip. My hair flipped just fine, so I think I'll get the stylist to aim for as close to the picture as she can this year. As for the color, I'll get some highlights again, I'm not sure how dramatic. The nice thing about Christmas time is if the haircut is bad, I can wear a Santa hat everyday and everyone will just think I am in a holiday mood and not know that secretly I want to deliver some coal to salon in the city.

Come and share a bite to eat with my family!

Tonight I made Corned Beef Hash for supper. It’s something my mom would make when I was a kid, but I don’t think I’ve ever made it for my kids before. Basically you boil some potatoes and drain them, then add a can of corned beef and mash it all together. My mom would add fried onions as well, but I knew that would send the kids right over the edge so we did without. Being the picky kids they are, they took one look and every single one of them said…Ewwww! What’s that? I’m going to try to remember as much of the dinner conversation as I can…

Me: It’s corned beef and potatoes mashed together.
Katie: What’s corned beef?
Beth: It’s a cow, I saw the can, it had a cow on it.
Anna: I don’t like it.

So I start to dish them out a small amount each.

Katie: I think I am a vegetarian.
Beth: What’s a vegetarian.
Katie: Someone who doesn’t eat meat.
Anna: It not meat, it a cow, I don’t like it.

Then I dish out some corn.

Katie: Not very much I don’t like corn very much.
Me: You’re not much of a vegetarian if you don’t eat your veggies.
Beth: You’ll get sick if you don’t eat vegetables.
Katie: Yeah, you get scurvy.
Beth: I know what happens if you get scurvy.
Me: What happens?
Beth: You turn into a pirate.
Anna: A scurby pirate (you have to watch Backyardigans to get that one)

So I explain what scurvy is and why pirates would get it, and that you don’t turn into a pirate if you don’t eat your veggies and get scurvy.

Beth: The cats would love this (the corned beef hash she means).
Me: Why?
Beth: It looks just like cat food, and it kinda tastes like cat food.
Me: It does not taste like cat food, it tastes like potatoes and corned beef.

The conversation just went downhill from there, lol. Finally all was quiet, the kids were eating their cat food/corned beef hash and Anna pipes up (after staring intently into her cup), “Dis smells like cat pee.”

Don’t you wish you could eat over at our house?

More Proof

Last night after Chris and I were finished watching a show and were turning out the lights our cat Rufio started chasing something. It was dark, the only light on was the Christmas tree, so we couldn't tell what he was chasing at first. Once our eyes adjusted we realized that Rufio was chasing his tail. Yep, more proof that my cats think they are dogs. So far we have:

1. Drinking out of the toilet.
2. Laying on their backs to get their belly's rubbed.
3. Chasing their tails.

On mark against them is that they are too picky to eat table scraps. That is very cat like I guess.

Christmas Concert

Last night Katie and Beth had their school Christmas concert. I've always felt the school here had their concerts too early in December. It would be so much nicer if they had the concert closer to the end of school so that visiting relatives, like grandparents for instance, would have a chance to watch. I guess because in a small town everyone is related and pretty much everyone's family, grandparents, aunts, uncles etc. live here too, they don't really have to take that into consideration. You might think to yourself that since the concert is done and over with the last couple of weeks of school will be filled with actual school work, but I don't think so, lol. They have school parties to get ready for and the big Christmas Feast! The feast is something I have always loved about this school. Every year on the last day of school before Christmas Holidays the whole school, kids and staff, gather in the gym and eat a complete Christmas meal together. The older kids pair with the little ones to help them serve themselves and sit with them while they eat. The parents donate all the sides (mashed potatoes, veggies, pickles, buns and butter, etc) and the SRC provides the turkeys which are cooked by parent volunteers. It's very Harry Potter like, all the students gathered in the same room at long tables for a big feast, lol. When we are transferred I hope we are lucky enough to find a school half as good as this one has been. We've been very spoiled I think.

Here are a couple pictures from last night's concert. It was very difficult to get a good picture, sorry. The first one is Beth's class of kindergartens and grade ones. They sang Santa Claus is Coming to Town. She's the one in the very middle.

Katie is even harder to see. Her class of grade 3 and 4's sang Silver Bells and they were all dressed in old fashioned clothing. She is on the very far left. You can sort of see two kids there and she is the one on the right. Terrible pictures, but what can you do?

Santa, the Dentist and all that fun stuff

So I discovered last night that Katie no longer believes in Santa Claus. It's so sad. And she didn't even ask me or anything like that, she just made a comment. Not one of those comments that let me know she is unsure and asking for me to reaffirm her faith in Santa, just a comment that let me know she didn't believe, she knew it was us, and that was that.

It actually kinda took me by surprise in a way. She's a pretty mature kid in many ways, but she's always had a wonderful imagination, and is very emotional. I thought she might be one of those kids who believes for a long time. She's only 9. I don't know when I stopped believing, so maybe it's a normal age, but it was just too soon. On the other hand having met some of the kids in her class, and knowing a couple of her friends closely, it didn't surprise me that she no longer believes and neither do her friends. After it sunk in though I decided to just have a quick chat with her about Santa and tha magic of giving at Christmas. We also talked about how there are some kids in her class who still believe and all the little kids at school and her sisters who still believe of course and how sad it would be for them to quit believing. She understands she's a part of the magic of Santa in keeping that belief alive in her sisters.

Maybe I should have sat her down and told her she was wrong and that Santa was real, but I'm not positive that would have accomplished much. I told Chris that instead of a present from Santa she could get a note that said "Dear Katie, I don't believe in you either, so there!" Maybe then she'd start believing again. I'm kidding of course.

I on the other hand have decided that I'd much rather believe in Santa than dentists though. Dentists don't leave presents, they are not jolly, and they discourage cookies. There is no magic going on at the dentists office whatsover. That was proved to me yet again today. This morning Katie, Beth and I all had appointments. The girls were getting a cleaning and a checkup and I was supposed to get a filling and if there was time, a check up. The dentist had a cancellation so she was able to do a check up, so I told her about the tooth pain I was having on the top right side. That's where I was having pain the last time I had a check up apparently, but she couldn't find anything so just asked me to keep an eye on it. Then I had to book myself in for this filling. I forgot and forgot and then when I finally remembered I was having the tooth pain again, and thought that must be the tooth I need the filling in. I was wrong. The tooth that needs the filling is on the bottom and it doesn't bother me at all. The top tooth however has really been hurting the last couple of weeks though, so she did a bunch of tests on that tooth.

First the x-ray showed nothing wrong, no cavity. She she banged on the tooth with something metal, and made me jump in pain. She did that a few times for some insane reason. Then she looked at the xray for a while again. Then she took an ice stick out of the freezer and held it on various parts of my tooth asking me to tell her when I felt the cold or any pain. I never did feel the cold, so she tried it on some other teeth which felt it just fine. Again it was time to look at the perplexing xray. Next she tried a pulp tester or something to that effect. Dentists should maybe explain things through sometimes before they scare you. She nonchalantly says she is going to hold this metal pole agains my tooth and I have to hold onto the pole as well to complete the ciruit. Huh? Complete the circuit? Like mini electroshock therapy for my tooth? Maybe they are going to shock it into behaving so they can figure out what's wrong, I don't know? She must have seen the worried look on my face as I was slowly reaching for the pole because she then laughed and said "It's not going to shock you or anything, don't worry." Well maybe the not shocking part should have come out right before or immediately after she mentioned completing the circuit and I wouldn't have looked so concerned. No wonder I and so many other people, hate going to the dentist. Anyways, it turns out I couldn't feel anything with the pulp tester either, and again they tried it on another tooth so I could feel what it was supposed to feel like. Funny for a tooth that has no feeling it sure has been causing me a lot of pain.

So basically the only explanation the dentist can come up with is that perhaps the filling I currently have in that tooth goes deep and that over time it killed the nerve. She wants to remove the filling and take a look since we have exhausted every other avenue to discover why it's causing me pain. She decides to do this tooth today and leave the other filling for another day. So to make this long story slightly shorter, my quick filling turned into a root canal on a completely different tooth. Santa would never do that to anyone! My 1 hr appointment turned into 2.5 hrs and I have to come back one more time, maybe twice to finish the root canal, another time to do the filling on the bottom and then 2 more times to put a crown on the root canal tooth. Stupid teeth. Santa wouldn't make me come back 5 more times. Considering he can fly around the whole world in one night, I'm sure he could fix my teeth lickety split without any circuit completing and maybe even a cookie.

The Tree is up!

*I wrote this last night but was having trouble posting it with the pictures.*

I love Christmas. I love the smell of Christmas. I love the smell so much I spent a small fortune on Christmas smelling candles a couple of months ago. Chris wasn't impressed with the amount at the time, but I am sure once the house starts smelling like Christmas everyday, he'll soon forget, lol. I love the decorations. I love sitting in the living room at night after the kids are in bed with the tv on and just the Christmas tree for light. And I love the music. I have two new Christmas cd's that I just received in the mail last week that I cannot wait to listen to over and over. I've already listened to them a couple of times each and they are wonderful!

Today we put up the tree and decorated the inside of the house. The kids had a blast. Chris helped move decorations from the bottom of the tree to some of the empty branches at the top but for the most part, the kids decorated the whole tree all by themselves. We also hung the stocking and put out the Christmas candle holders (for those pricey candles I mentioned above of course). Here's the end result...

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Or not.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.
In the stores they are yelling,
and everyone telling you,
"Don't hog the cashier!"
It's the most wonderful time of the year.

There'll be parties for hosting,
and turkeys for roasting and
trying to shop in the snow.
there'll be scary ghost stories of
shoppers who've got lost in shopping malls
long, long ago.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.
There'll be much stepping-on-toeing
and cash will be flowing,
when shoppers are near.
It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Okay, I can admit that it's not great, but I bet you could tell that I've been Christmas shopping today, lol.

It was crazy busy! I knew it would be, it's the first Saturday in December, but I don't have many shopping days left. I babysit everyday until the 22nd except for weekends. I could do an evening trip, but I'd rather not drive in the dark with all the deer out there if I don't have to. I did manage to get all Chris's gifts bought and a couple for the girls. The rest will have to be done another day...or ONLINE!!

3am and the Race is On!

I woke up suddenly last night at 3am to the sound of the cats chasing one another across the living room, through the kitchen and into my bedroom...up one side of my bed and down the other. It was pretty funny to listen to the chase. Our living room and kitchen have laminate floors and the cats always have a hard time running on them. If they are startled and try to run, you can usually hear their claws hit the floor and try to get a grip, almost like they are running on the spot, before they fall over. It was the same last night, or should I say early morning. I could hear them start at one end of the living room, claws clicking all over the floor and they tried to run, and then you could hear them slide as they tried to maneuver their way around the dishwasher and slide through the bedroom door where they could finally get a grip on the carpet and go flying up and down my bed. It was all very cartoon like actually. Chris woke up too, or else he was still awake, as he worked til 2am and I have no idea when he got home. He told me the cats do this every single night he comes home from being on nights. So they cats have a couple more races and then Chris gets up to close the bedroom door as there is no way we can sleep with all the clicking and sliding sounds, much less the mad dash up and down the bed across our feet. I said "Do you think they will run into the door?". They can't see our door until after the dishwasher turn, and then it's right there. Chris says "I guess we'll see." just as we hear the beginning clicking start again.

Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click....slide.....click, click, click, THUNK...the distinct sound of a cat's head hitting our door. Then click, click, click, click, THUMP...the sound of a whole cat hitting the door. Chris and I burst into laughter. That was the last we heard of the cats. It put a lot into perspective for me....if they run their heads into doors, perhaps they have brain damage, which really would explain a lot of their behaviour actually.